Reuter, Paul Julius, Baron von (Israel Beer Josphat)

(1816–99)

   Founder of Reuters News Agency. Reuter was born in Germany, and took that name when he was baptized at the age of twenty-eight. He became a correspondent in Paris for German papers. Frustrated by the French political censorship, he started a telegraphic agency from Belgium to Germany, devoted to commercial and financial information. In 1851 he moved to London when the DoverCalais marine cable was completed. The service was broadened to cover general news and extended to other regions. It achieved a dramatic scoop by reporting President Lincoln’s assassination in Britain and the continent forty-eight hours before other channels. In 1871, the duke of Saxe-Coburg made him a baron. Reuters became a limited liability company in 1916 on the death of his son and successor Herbert (1847–1915).